Comment on “The global tree restoration potential”

Joseph Veldman (1) , Julie Aleman (2) , Swanni Alvarado (3) , T. Michael Anderson , Sally Archibald (4) , William Bond (5) , Thomas Boutton , Nina Buchmann (6) , Elise Buisson (7) , Josep Canadell (8) , Michele de Sá Dechoum , Milton Diaz-Toribio , Giselda Durigan (9) , John Ewel , G. Wilson Fernandes (10) , Alessandra Fidelis (11) , Forrest Fleischman , Stephen Good , Daniel Griffith , Julia-Maria Hermann , William Hoffmann , Soizig Le Stradic (12) , Caroline Lehmann (13) , Grégory Mahy (14) , Ashish Nerlekar , Jesse Nippert , Reed Noss , Colin Osborne , Gerhard Overbeck (15) , Catherine Parr (16) , Juli Pausas (17) , R. Toby Pennington (18) , Michael P Perring (19) , Francis Putz (20) , Jayashree Ratnam (21) , Mahesh Sankaran (21) , Isabel Schmidt (22) , Christine Schmitt (23, 24) , Fernando Silveira (10) , A. Carla Staver (25) , Nicola Stevens , Christopher Still , Caroline Strömberg , Vicky M Temperton (26) , J. Morgan Varner , Nicholas Zaloumis

1 Texas A&M University [College Station]
2 UdeM - Université de Montréal
3 UEMA - Universidade Estadual do Maranhão = State University of Maranhão
4 WITS - University of the Witwatersrand [Johannesburg]
5 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
6 Institute of Agricultural Sciences [Zürich]
7 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
8 CSIRO - Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship
9 Instituto Florestal do Estado de São Paulo
10 UFMG - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais = Federal University of Minas Gerais [Belo Horizonte, Brazil]
11 UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho = São Paulo State University
12 TUM - Technische Universität Munchen - Technical University Munich - Université Technique de Munich
13 Edin. - University of Edinburgh
14 Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech [Gembloux]
15 UFRGS - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul [Porto Alegre]
16 University of Liverpool
17 Center for Desertification Research (CIDE)
18 Royal Botanic Garden [Edinburgh]
19 UWA - The University of Western Australia
20 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
21 NREL - Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory [Fort Collins]
22 UnB - Universidade de Brasilia [Brasília]
23 University of Freiburg [Freiburg]
24 Universität Bonn = University of Bonn
25 Yale University [New Haven]
26 Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

Bastin et al.’s estimate (Reports, 5 July 2019, p. 76) that tree planting for climate change mitigation could sequester 205 gigatons of carbon is approximately five times too large. Their analysis inflated soil organic carbon gains, failed to safeguard against warming from trees at high latitudes and elevations, and considered afforestation of savannas, grasslands, and shrublands to be restoration.

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement; Biodiversité et Ecologie; Environnement et Société; Milieux et Changements globaux

Joseph Veldman, Julie Aleman, Swanni Alvarado, T. Michael Anderson, Sally Archibald, et al.. Comment on “The global tree restoration potential”. Science, 2019, 366 (6463), pp.eaay7976. ⟨10.1126/science.aay7976⟩. ⟨hal-02463305⟩